Technical Chevy 250 HELP!

Hello everyone my at has been sitting for about 8 weeks (been busy with work and school) when I parked my car my motor was running perfect and today I charged the battery and tried firing her up and I got nothing. I changed the plugs, charged the battery and have been spraying starter fluid and she is turning but just won't fire up and I'm stumped. Can someone help me out? Thanks

 

post pics of motor

 

Have you checked for spark? Voltage at the coil? Sounds like you don't have spark.

 

I don't want to sound dumb but how do I do this I'm still young and learning this stuff.

 

Another pic

 

I see several wires going to positive cable, see a wire twisted together.
If any of these wires are intended to feed the coil, that may be the source of your problem.

 

Which wires are you talking about? My plug wires are all correct I just double checked that.

 

Nice looking engine.1-clean the points carefully using paper and contact cleaner,check point gap-should be .018" on that engine,set gap when the points are fully open,this also gives you a chance to examine the rotor and inside of the cap for damage for 2-check power to the + side of the coil-use a test light or simply connect a jumper lead from battery positive to the + terminal on the coil,that way you know for certain 3 -be certain that the wire from the - side of the coil is connected to points and is not grounded out anywhere 4-spin engine over and see if you get spark from the coil,IE remove coil wire from distributor cap,hold it very close to the block,spin the engine and see if you get a spark,if you do plug the wire back into the cap and see if the engine starts.If no spark you likely have a bad coil.Before replacing the coil I would try another condensor as a shorted or open condensor will cause the engine not to start. Be careful about how much starting fluid you spray into the engine .If it was running when you parked it likely it is something simple.

 

Look at the last pic you posted.
I see several wires (three) going to positive post, one is the red pos.wire/cable.
I also see and red wire twisted together with a black wire. The connection of those two wires are exposed.
Is that combo of red and black, going to the coil, by chance ?

 

No the wires you're seeing are for a speaker with sirens I have on the car! Nothing related to the coil.

 

Is that a bump-to-roll over-switch I see on the firewall? If so, could it be grounding out on something? Everything looks like a pretty clean installation however. Isolate everything, and disconnect everything to make things simple. Just hot wire it directly, use a remote starter switch, and see if that does something. If not, look at the condenser for issues. You've converted to 12 volts, but I don't see a ballast resistor that would help prevent burning the points/condenser. Electrical gremlins can be one of the more difficult things to diagnose; just go at it one thing at a time, and completely start over like i said, to hot wire it, and byp*** as much as possible. The KISS principle. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Take the distributor cap off and have a buddy turn the engine over with the starter while you watch the distributor. Does the distributor rotor turn while the engine is cranking? If not, you've broken the timing gear at the front of the engine. If the rotor goes around and around when cranking, observe the points when cranking. Do they open and close? They're suppose to. If so, is there a spark created between the two halves of the points when cranking? If not, crank the engine or turn by hand with the fan belt until the two halves of the points are closed with the key in the "run" position and use a plastic handled screw driver to open the points and let them snap shut on each other. Do this until you hear an electrical "snap" sound and you get a spark when the points open.
If you still get no spark when "snapping" the points, [remember--key "on"] you have a problem with either the coil or the electrical feed to the coil.

 

Hi. Three things MUST happen for your engine to start. You MUST have fuel, air & spark.
Take the air cleaner off & look down into the carburetor & work the throttle linkage to see if it squirts gas. If no gas squirt you are either out of gas or have a stopped up fuel filter or a bad fuel pump. No need to move on to the others unless you are getting gas thru the carb.
That is a oil bath style air cleaner so it should not be stopped up but for the heck of it check & see if something got in there and is blocking air. If this is ok then you need to check & see if you have spark to the plugs. Does other electrical things work - horn blow, lights work, etc? If not check battery cable connections & clean & tighten them. Check horn, lights again. If still not working check your battery. You could have a dead cell& the battery will not take a charge or p*** current.
Once you get past the battery check see if you have 12 volts to the coil. Is that yellow/black wite in the photo coming from the ignition switch to the coil. If so see if you have 12 volts from that coil connection to ground. If good then do as others have said and see if you are getting spark at the points and by pulling a plug wire off plug & see if it sparks to ground. Be careful as a plug wire will whop the **** out of you if you are not careful.
If you are not getting spark at points or plug it could either the distributor cap, rotor or condenser on the distributor.
That ought to keep you busy a bit.

Good luck, Jim

 

Alright so I double checked and I am getting a faint spark to the plugs. I'm reading up online that it should be bright blue? Could it be my ignition coil? And if I have to replace my distributor can anyone point me to a how to thread on replacing a stock distributor I don't want to go HEI. Thanks all.

 

The spark is a faint orange spark.

 

What kind of a car are we talking about, here ?

 

It's a Chevy 250 motor in my 50.

 

OK where are getting the spark at? At the coil wire on the cap or at the spark plug itself?

 

At the spark plug itself. When turning the motor I had my brother hold the plug to the block and we get a faint orange spark.

 

Ok if you are getting a faint spark and your sure you have fuel from the carb when you move the throttle, I would swap the coil with a known good one. I've seen it before when there is a faint spark at the plug out of the cylinder it just won't fire when its in the cylinder because the coil is on its way out.

 

Check for excessive side play in the distributor shaft. Pretty common on Chevy 250s. Messes up the dwell and can cause hard starting and stalling at idle speeds and low RPMs.

 

Alright I got a new ignition coil so I'll throw it on when I have some time tomorrow after work. Let's hope she fires up. Thanks for all your help so far!

 

Alright guys so I think I might have royally f*cked up but we will see with your insight. I replaced the ignition coil and of course it still wouldn't fire up. But I think I messed up my system is 6 volts and the new ignition coil is 12 volts and I realized this after I already put it in the motor. If it's wrong I can get a correct 6V one. This thing is starting to piss me off but hey at least I'm learning ha!

 

Reason I got mixed up was I wasn't thinking about how my system is 6 volts and the motor is a 250 which was a 12 volt I'm ***uming when it got pulled from its original truck. So question is, is it fine to have that 12 volt coil or no?

 

First you'd have to switch to 12V to run hei, but you knew that I'm sure, Az mentioned before, anything that ran, an doesn't is 99% of the the time oxidation on points, never bought a dirt bike that didn't have spark? Always corroded points!! You have weak spark, if points are Clean an set rite, replace condenser, those Damn things are about the only thing in the ignition that can"kinda" work,

 

The ignition coil I got is not HEI it's just an original style coil that is 12 volts. Since my whole system in the car is 6 volts will the coil being 12 volts harm anything or is it fine?

 

This may help you with your troubleshooting...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/hot-rod-technical-library-basic-ignition-systems.983424/

 

Am I missing something here? You say it's a 6 volt system, but a 250 would have a 12 volt starter motor; are you trying to use a 12 volt starter motor with 6 volts? Pretty sure there were never any 6 volt starters made that will even work with with a 250 style six (or V-8's). Same deal if you're trying to push 6 volts through a 12 volt coil, and condenser will be wrong also, you're not getting enough voltage by design. Looks like a 12 volt battery however (?). So, what volt battery, new ignition points and condenser, wired correctly? I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

When I got the car I was told everything was 6 volts still and it is. The 250 used to be 12 volts for sure. But when I pulled the ignition coil off it didn't say anything but I could tell it was a stock 6 volt one from the truck and car shop.